My invention relates to a method for constructing lightweight structural panel units suitable for use in constructing space enclosing structures.
Building construction members, particularly triangular shaped structural panels utilized in the construction of geodesic, or dome like space enclosing structures are known.
The most common means for constructing such structural panels will generally consist of some type of space framework composed of wood or metal struts and various attachment hardware combined to produce a polygonal form unit, usually triangular in shape, which will then have a covering material of some type, or structural panels which are fabricated from a formed, or molded and then hardened matter or composite material.
The manufacturing process for the common types of structural panels is frequently complicated, time-consuming and costly, and the resulting structural panels are not generally portable, or easily assembled into larger space enclosing structures without specialized machinery, skilled labor, and tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,881,717, Buckminster Fuller—entitled “Building Construction”, discloses a method of folding cardboard or other flat sheet material to form a “building member” suitable for constructing geodesic dome structure.
The benefits achieved by utilizing folded, flat sheets of material to fabricate structural panel units are many, and include: lower cost of materials, lower cost of fabrication, lighter weight, and easier onsite assembly relative to most common means for fabricating structural panels.
Beyond early experimental work in the 1950's and 1960's with folding cardboard geodesic domes, Fuller's approach has failed to find any significant commercial application due to a variety of weaknesses in the method.
In the prior art, the approach was to take a single flat sheet of relatively heavy material and fold it into itself to form a relatively small structural panel. A panel so formed had no integrated means for allowing itself to be attached or conjoined to additional, like panels during the construction of a space enclosing structure. That approach also severely limited the scale and utility of the structural panel so formed, and made the construction of space enclosing structures a complicated and tedious process prone to errors in panel alignment.
Prior art examples have also generally had no integrated provision for allowing natural light to pass into the space enclosing structure formed from such structural panels, unless the panels were only intended to produce a space frame, wherein such a space frame had no utility as a weather proof shelter without additional material or parts.